[2014] Mayor’s Speech

Design-related Hot Issues that will Surprise the World

11/26/2014SMG1556

At the opening ceremony of the Herald Design Forum 2014

Date: 11/26/2014
Venue: Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), Seoul

How are you? Please accept my deep-hearted congratulations on the opening of Herald Design Forum 2014, where world-famous design experts and young local designers will discuss design inspirations of our times. My special thanks to Chairman Hong Jungwook and other members of Herald Corporation for holding this meaningful event.

The DDP, where we are gathered today, was built in 2014 as a new landmark of Seoul, part of the effort to make Seoul a global design Mecca. It has since become the talk of the design world. I look forward to the fascinating design ideas that attendees will come up with at this event, held at this meaningful place.

I happened to pay a visit to the Design School at Stanford University during my visit to San Francisco two months ago. I found that the school, which has produced many design wizards, was focusing on the process of thinking. I saw that their design was regarded as a product of a thinking process centered on people and cooperation. People there thought that a new kind of thinking in design could provide solutions to many problems by focusing on humanism, building consensus, and making creative and innovative efforts. It moved me very much.

We live in an era where design influences national and urban policies as well as life in general, not to mention industry and manufactured products. The City of Curitiba of Brazil has come to be called an ecocity through design. Munich, which was once filled with gray concrete buildings, has become a green city through design. In this manner, cities in the 21st Century are finding new ways into the future through design.

We at the SMG are also carrying out design-based municipal administration through collaborative governance, encouraging people to take part, with the focus on sustainability, in an effort to solve many pending issues.

It is for this reason that we pay attention to what is being discussed at today’s event under the subject of Design Spectrum – Its Infinite Realm.

I expect that the forum hosted by Herald Corporation will find a way to turn the crises of today into the opportunities of tomorrow, and expand a new design vision to people, their daily lives, and cities, all through the concerted efforts of design experts such as you.